Girls & Boys Hawk Basketball Mid-Season Report
Canyon Lake has not been noted for being a Basketball school as the Boys are still looking for their first winning season while the girls have been to 2 playoff games and had a splendid team during the 2009-10 season with a final 19-10 record as their high water mark.
Those days for the Girls has been long gone while the Boys still yearn for any resemblance of a year that Hawk Girl’s Team accomplished during that magical season.
That would explain on how Canyon Lake has both Boy’s and Girl’s squads sporting records over .500 during the Christmas Break which has happened just once in 2011.
For the Boy’s, they would not win another game until the 2012-13 after reaching 9 wins before Christmas that year.
CL’s Ladies are presently on a 6 game winning streak and a win in their next game would tie this year’s edition with that 2009-10 and 2012-13 teams.
Canyon Lake Girls presently stand with a 11-7 (.611) record which rivals the 2009-10 year when that team stood with an 8-5 (.615) record at the Christmas Break.
That 2009-10 team had players that were together for some hard knocks their first two years and were ready to administer pain to schools as they had also welcomed a transfer student from the Houston area that would become the best Hawk B-ball player in Ashley Pfaff.
So the depth for that team was not as young as the team taking the court this year but Coach Zach Burleson has done a good job of scheduling a bus load of games (5 more) than that first Hawk playoff team.
Tiffany Tschoepe was a Junior on that earlier Hawk team and now another Tschoepe is making her debut this year as a Freshman(Chelsea Tschoepe). Playing 18 games will go a long way in growing this young team that sports just two Seniors.
In the Lady Hawk’s last game with La Vernia, the contest proved to be a good indicator on how well this group of ladies has grown and they start to put a team on the hard-wood that can compete and give themselves a chance for a win.
LV Bears have beaten Bandera and played Boerne to the wire, losing by 5 points earlier this year. Fredericksburg had also won their game with La Vernia by 22 points.
It is always hard to prognosticate first of the season games, but all you can look for are how each game was performed in that battle.
That battle with La Vernia that Canyon Lake won, 64-52 was a good measuring stick as that contest had two varsity players already gone which had Coach Burleson fishing in the JV pond to find two players in making a jump up to play on that night.
Add a foul plagued game that put the Hawks leading scorer (Reagan Heun) on the bench for much of the game speaks volumes on the maturity as CL never trailed in this battle.
How will CL Ladies do this year when District 28-4A starts up? No way of knowing as many variables will be evident in the form of injuries/slumps/etc. that will enter into the equation. You can draw a conclusion that Canyon Lake will give the schools a good run and a chance of repeating their playoff berth last season.
The Hawk Ladies have 5 more chances to sharpen their game before district starts on January 10th and that will be a good time for improving before that curtain opens for district play.
========================================
On the Boys side of the court, the Hawks had their first taste of playing in the post-season last year as a 4th seed.
Canyon Lake had a decent team but still finished with a losing record and the Hawks will continue their climb for another chance of making a playoff game. Having a winning record would be a good sign, as Coach Luke Chapman, continues to build this team for a better end result.
This Senior group has been together for, in some cases, 3 years and having younger players that are all in with, a basketball only, mentality should help.
There are just 2 players on this year’s varsity that played football while those other players have been working on their game since school started.
The Hawks have never had this many players with that sort of resume and that is what might be the ingredient for better results with this year’s squad.
Rory Preiss will be integral for CL with a 13 point per game average as he also has one of the best all-around games with statistical numbers, as he also leads the Hawks in assists, steals, and offensive rebounds.
Canyon Lake has used their whole bench during this pre-district trial and in their last game, CL used Parker Mott to fill a spot for Gerrit Wilkins who was not available and responded with 7 assists.
Looking at The Lake, you have seen Heath McDonough bring his ‘A’ game while Jacob Ramirez continues to get his stamina back after missing the first part of this season with an injury.
A lot of parts to be put into this machine that will help give CL a mindset for competing on a higher level as District 28-4A starts in a few weeks.
The Hawks have played a multitude of contests and still have 8 more games before Hondo comes calling on January 13th to start those important district battles.
A record of 9-5 going into a Christmas Break was matched by the 2011 team and that happened to be the most wins that Hawk team would gather for the rest of their season.
Boy's Pre/Christmas Record Wins Loses Pct. Final Record District Record 2009 7 7 .500 14-18 3-7 2010 6 7 .462 8-21 1-11 2011 9 5 .643 9-19 0-12 2012 9 9 .500 10-20 1-9 2013 1 12 .077 6-23 0-10 2014 4 11 .267 7-24 3-9 2015 6 8 .429 13-18 6-6 2016 9 5 .643 ??-?? ?-?
What you take from the wins and losses above is a simple phrase, Canyon Lake can take no team lightly. That 9 win plateau the 2011 team had was their high water mark with no wins from that date forward.
Totally shut-out by the opposition after the Hawks opened their presents that year. Having your head above the water this time of year is a good thing but learning from the past would tell you this is not the end of the season.
Since the 2013 campaign the Hawks have increased their win total in each of those consecutive years and now CL can keep that goal in mind as their basketball goal looms in the coming weeks, on how those ?? marks will be filled out in February.
Go Hawks and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!